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Metaliteracy MOOC about to launch!

Registration is now open for a new Metaliteracy MOOC offered by SUNY Empire State College and the University Libraries at the University at Albany. The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) will launch this Wednesday, September 4. It is based on the metaliteracy framework developed by Dean Tom Mackey from the Center for Distance Learning (CDL) at Empire State College and Distinguished Librarian Trudi E. Jacobson from the University Libraries at UAlbany. Mackey and Jacobson introduced the metaliteracy model, a reinvention of information literacy for open learning and social media environments in their article “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy” published in College & Research Libraries. They are currently finishing a book on the topic entitled Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacies to Empower Learners for ALA Books. The Metaliteracy MOOC will be co facilitated by Mackey and Jacobson, as well as Jenna Hecker and Tor Loney from UAlbany, and Nicola Marae Allain and Carol Yeager from Empire State College.

Live webinars presented by scholars from around the world will be featured in Metaliteracy “MOOC Talks” that promote interaction and dialogue about related topics such as metacognition, open learning, visual literacy, news literacy, scientific literacy, transliteracy, global perspectives on literacy, digital storytelling, and STEMx.

Presenters include: Char Booth, Instruction Services Manager & E-Learning Librarian at the Claremont Colleges Library, R. Brian Stone, Associate Professor at The Ohio State University, Alton Grizzle, Programme Officer in Communication and Information at UNESCO, Paul Prinsloo, Education Consultant and Editor of Progressio:South African Journal for Open and Distance Learning Practice at University of South Africa, Rex Smith, Editor of the Albany Times Union, Bryan Alexander, researcher and publisher of Future Trends in Technology and Education at BryanAlexander.org and Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE), Sue Thomas, author of Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace, and HP Catalyst Fellows Anthony Maddox, Holly Ludgate, and Samantha Adams Becker.

Several sessions will be co-presented by SUNY colleagues including: John Delano, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University at Albany, Mark McBride, Director of Library Services, Monroe Community College, Nicola Marae Allain, Faculty Mentor and Academic Area Coordinator for Humanities/Digital Media at CDL, Michele Forte, Faculty Mentor in Community and Human Services at CDL, and Betty Hurley-Dasgupta, Mentor and Academic Area Coordinator in Science Math and Technology at CDL and HP Catalyst Fellow.

In addition to being an entirely free format that is open to participants worldwide, Metaliteracy MOOC will connect courses for credit at the University at Albany with undergraduate and graduate independent studies at Empire State College. At UAlbany, Trudi Jacobson, Tor Loney, and Jenna Hecker will teach with the MOOC as part of UUNL300x (2 credit) and UUNL205x (1 credit). At Empire State College, Tom Mackey and Carol Yeager will co-facilitate undergraduate guided independent studies based on the MOOC. CDL Faculty Mentor and Academic Area Coordinator Nicola Marae Allain will offer a research-based guided independent study entitled “MOOC Metacognitive Analysis” (3 credit) for graduate students in the Master of Arts in Learning and Emerging Technologies (MALET) in the School for Graduate Studies.

Metaliteracy MOOC is designed and co-facilitated by Carol Yeager, who developed the first two MOOCs for Empire State College and the SUNY system with Betty Hurley-Dasgupta, Creativity and Multicultural Communication and VizMath. The new Metaliteracy MOOC was built on the same gRSShopper programming developed by Stephen Downes, one of the originators of the MOOC movement and previous keynote speaker at the CDL Conference. Technical support for the MOOC is provided by Retsam Zhang, Guangdong Province, China.